"Couples Retreat" plays like the NBA All-Star game: What seems like a dream-team exhibition of pros at the top of their game too often turns into an undisciplined mess.
In the case of "Couples Retreat," a team of comedy all-stars, including Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, who wrote the script (along with Dana Fox), nail a few showy set pieces.
But neither they nor director Peter Billingsley (yes, the shoot-your-eye-out kid from "A Christmas Story") want to do the difficult job of crafting a compelling story.
So you're left with some entertaining bits that don't add up to a satisfying whole, wondering how this many funny people could fall so flat.
Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell), an uptight couple who can't get pregnant and whose marriage is suffering because of it, persuade their friends to go to an island resort that specializes in couples therapy.
Reluctant at first, they agree. There's Dave (Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Akerman), parents too busy to pay attention to their relationship; Joey (Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis), who married in high school and wonder how much fun they missed; and Shane (Faizon Love) and Trudy (Kali Hawk) – he's recently divorced, and she's a 20-year-old party animal with whom he can't keep up.
Jason and Cynthia genuinely want to work on their marriage, to try to save it. Everyone else is in it for the umbrella drinks and the personal watercraft.
But the trip proves more demanding than they would like, including a daily session with Marcel (Jean Reno), a New Age guru who specializes in empty-headed bromides and exercises.
It's a setup ripe for racy, R-rated comedy with heart, the kind of thing Vaughn and Favreau have done well in the past.
But "Couples Retreat" is a PG-13 film, which, on its face, is fine. But it's also symptomatic: Vaughn, Favreau and Billingsley just aren't willing to go far enough to make the movie as funny as it ought to be, instead relying on sappy resolutions achieved far too easily.
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